


Desperate Dreaming Death

by yakyuu_yarou



Series: rite of reprisal [1]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Hallucinations, Illusions, M/M, Mindfuck, Minor Character Death, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22771546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yakyuu_yarou/pseuds/yakyuu_yarou
Summary: Wilde goes to take revenge on the people who cursed him during the Damascus arc, and he asks Zolf to come along as backup.
Relationships: Zolf Smith/Oscar Wilde
Series: rite of reprisal [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2011966
Comments: 16
Kudos: 55





	Desperate Dreaming Death

**Author's Note:**

> The Wilde appreciation Discord was talking about Wilde going, well, wild on the people who cursed him during the Damascus arc while Zolf watches, and this is probably not where any of you wanted me to go with this, but it‘s what you get.  
> Bards are rad, yo.
> 
> Thank you for reading 💙

There‘s nothing Zolf can do except watch.

It‘s not that Wilde is _forcing_ him to watch what‘s happening, not at all—Zolf simply can‘t look away. Part of him wants to, desperately screams at the rest of him to tear his eyes off the man‘s spread arms and wide-open mouth as he sings, but said rest of him is too entranced-terrified-in love to comply.

He doesn‘t know what he was expecting when Wilde asked him to come along on what was supposed to _not_ be about revenge for the nightmares, was supposed to be _for the mission_ because the enemy having curses that strong on hand is too much of a risk by anyone‘s estimate, but it wasn‘t this. It probably should have been, he thinks as he watches Oscar‘s hair whipping around his beautiful, scarred, hurt-furious-serene face, and refuses to watch the way his torturers sink to their knees. They‘re holding their heads, trying to shield their eyes and ears from things that are inside their heads and cannot be escaped from. Zolf is only getting echoes of what they‘re forced to feel, flashes of a burning world, burning, tearing flesh and reality and minds, and even though the part of him that wants to escape is horrified, he finds he really doesn‘t _care_. He cares that Wilde gets to do this, that he‘ll probably (hopefully) be better when he comes out on the other side.

He‘s glad that Oscar asked _him_ to come with him and not anyone else. It‘s a quiet realisation among the discordant singing—it‘s not sounds human vocal cords are capable of producing, but it doesn‘t look like Oscar cares about that very much—and the dying screams as the first of them fall, and Zolf lets it warm him quietly as he waits for them to die. Because there was never any doubt that they _would_ die here, not for Wilde, not for Zolf and not for them once the singing started, just as there was no doubt that their suffering would feel infinite before Wilde let their bodies give in.

Zolf understands. Zolf understands, and he knows that‘s why he‘s here. So he waits, healing ready in the tips of his fingers for when Oscar is done and the minor wounds they‘ve managed to inflict on him in their desperate dying dreams finally register, and his arms ready to open for a hug so the man he loves can finally feel safe again.

  
  


**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Desperate Dreaming Death [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25802227) by [KD reads (KDHeart)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KDHeart/pseuds/KD%20reads)




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